Chodosh Update

The following information provided by Rav Y. Herman in his yoshon guide dated October 24, 2010.

Israel: All Cheerios products sold in Israel under the General Mills/Nestle label have a Chodosh Code of Aug 16 11. (Anything earlier would be yoshon).

Nature Valley Granola bars sold in Israel with Hebrew Lettering and an O-U symbol are Yoshon with codes of 8/21/11 or earlier.

Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Multi Nut Cheerios sold in Eretz Yisroel — the cutoff date is August 16/20/11. (Anything earlier would be yoshon).

NOTE: Regarding the Honey Nut Cheerios sold in Israel with a date of August 23rd, seven days after the cutoff date – it should be okay according to Rav Herman.

JKN ADDS: According to Rabbi Chaim Lasri Shlita, who heads the Chief Rabbinate Import Division, all Cheerios and other products exhibiting an import label stating “with approval of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel” are yoshon only, since the Chief Rabbinate does not permit importing chodosh.

He adds that if one wishes to be absolutely certain, one will verify the integrity of the import label with the importer.

Rabbi Yaakov Charlop, the rav of Osem adds that all imports by his company are also yoshon.

5 Comments

I didn’t understand a few points. Could you elaborate:
1. What is the “code” referred to? Is it a production date? Is it printed in normal date format, or do we need to decode something more complicated?
2. 16/20/11 doesn’t look like a date to me. Is it a typo?
3. Re. Chief Rabbinate hechsher, that means even if the date is AFTER

I didn’t understand a few points. Could you elaborate:
1. What is the “code” referred to? Is it a production date? Is it printed in normal date format, or do we need to decode something more complicated?
2. 16/20/11 doesn’t look like a date to me. Is it a typo?
3. Re. Chief Rabbinate hechsher, that means even if the date is AFTER the dates you mention?

The code refers too the expiration date printed on the package. anything with a expiration date after these dates can be chodosh.

It is a typo It should read Aug 16/2011. The date on the box will be in this format 16AUG11.

with all due respect to The Rabunut I think in this case they are not being makpid on yoshon. The OU gives the hechsher and they have told me they are not taking any responsibility for chodosh in this case.

as for R charlap if that was true that would be great. This year all the boxes I have seen are with a date of 03AUG11 for cheerios and 23AUG11 or 24AUG11 for Honey nut cheerios. These should be yoshon however lets wait and see purim time what dates they are selling.